Always My Favorite Deputy
by PrincessTriSarahTops
Summary: Woody has adjusted to his new life with Bo, or at least the thought he had, until one afternoon he and Bo spot someone who looks too familiar to be true. *Re-uploaded because the first time didn't work right*


Woody was laying back, with his hands behind his head. His spurs were pointed down and his toes were pointed up at the sky. Bo was lying next to him; her crook and his hat were the only things separating them. It was Bo's favorite kind of weather. A gentle breeze was rolling through the fairgrounds that the carnival had settled on. Just enough sun was peeking out the patches of clouds so that you knew there was no danger of rain any time soon. The couple of toys had been laying atop the carnival's merry-go-round for a few hours now making shapes out of the clouds that floated carefree above.

"Oh, Bo look!" Woody pointed upwards excitedly. "That cloud there looks like your sheep!" Bo tilted her head slightly so that she could see where he was pointing.

"You're right!" She giggled, "It does look like the girls! Hmm…" She added, sitting up. "I wonder where they've gone off too."

"It's nice to know that not everything's changed." Woody smirked. He clambered up on his feet as best as a rag doll cowboy could. He scooped up his hat and the crook before helping Bo to her feet. "What do we have going on today?"

"The usual Saturday afternoon fun." Bo said. She brought one hand up to her porcelain brow to block the sun from her eyes. She leaned against her crook for support as here eyes scanned the fairgrounds. Woody took a few steps forward to stand beside her. Under the convenient shade of his hat, he too scanned the carnival below them.

He spotted Duck and Bunny at the water pistol shooting game where they were helping the toy prizes find homes with the game's "winners." He watched the children bounce excitedly on the balls of their feet as they cradled the new toy in their arms. Though he couldn't see it from his perch above the carousel, Woody knew that the toy prize was also beaming in the arms of their new kid. _Their kid._

It had been long enough now that Woody almost forgot what it was like to belong to a kid. To have your entire world revolve around the happiness of one child. Not that he ever forgot about Andy. Andy would always be Woody's favorite deputy and the sheriff saw him in every little boy who had brown hair and a blue t-shirt. Andy had loved blue, it was his favorite color. So whenever Woody thought of Andy, he always pictured him at ten years old in blue t-shirt.

It was never really talked about in the playroom, because Woody was the oldest toy there, but Andy wasn't Woody's first kid. He was a pull string cowboy from the fifties after all! Once upon a time, before Mr. Potato Head, Hamm or even Slinky had come to join the playpen Woody had belonged to Andy's Mom, Jennifer. She'd played with him for years and when she got too old to play with toys he was shelved. Shelved but never put away. Never boxed up. Jennifer cherished Woody until the day she passed him on to Andy. And Andy? Well, Woody and Andy's friendship had been legendary!

"_Now Woody, he's been my pal for as long as I can remember."_Andy's voice echoed in Woody's mind. _"He's brave like a cowboy should be. And kind. And smart. But the thing that makes Woody special is he'll never give up on you. Ever."_

Woody supposed that the one thing Andy would always remember about him, would turn out to be the Cowboy's biggest flaw. Because even though he enjoyed working with Bo and the others to help the carnival toys find kids, and as much as he admired his beau for moving on and finding a new purpose after being abandoned, Woody couldn't help but wish that he could belong to a kid again. Not just any kid though. Any kid wouldn't do. He wanted to find Andy.

"What are you thinking about so hard over there, sheriff?" Bo asked, bringing him back to the present.

"Hmm? Who me?" Woody shook his scrambled head. "Oh nothin'. You know me." He shrugged.

He looked back down at the carnival and for a second, he thought he recognized a familiar face in blue plaid. It couldn't have been Andy though because the plaid flannel shirt belonged to a man, a full-grown man. The man had one of his arms around a woman in a yellow dress and a young girl skipped in front of them. They seemed like a nice family and somehow there was something strangely familiar about the man and his little girl.

"Oh Woody." He heard Bo quietly exclaim. Woody looked over his shoulder to find Bo pointing at the very same family he'd been watching. "What do you think the chances are?" Woody didn't need Bo to elaborate. He knew exactly what she was asking.

"They're stopping at the water pistol game!" Woody told her. "Let's go in for a closer look!" If Woody would have had had a heart it would have been pounding in his chest.

"Watch this!" The man spun a water pistol on his index finger, before holding it by the plastic grip. He shot a burst of water, which landed in the dead center of a target. The target flopped over unenthusiastically, and the man blew on the barrel of the water gun, like he was a real life cowboy. "Yup, still got it." He smiled.

"I'll be sure to dig your red hat out of storage!" The woman who was with him laughed. "Now why don't you let your daughter play!" She encouraged.

"Alright, alright!" The man handed his water pistol off to the little girl who was with them. He crouched down, kneeling in the grass. "You want to keep your arms pointed straight, aim and…_reach for the sky!"_

It was like being struck by lightning. It couldn't possibly be…no toy was that lucky. But even as Woody blinked, he couldn't erase the image from his mind. His cheeks weren't as rosy as they'd once been, and his hair was a little more closely cropped than it had once been, but the blue flannel shirt was just familiar enough that Woody knew the man couldn't be anyone else. It was Andy.

"Bo?" Woody looked over his shoulder again.

"You're not seeing things, unless we both are." She assured him. "Go on." She encouraged him, a hint of sadness in her voice. "Go get your kid." Woody looked to Andy and his new family.

"He's not my kid anymore." Woody hung his head low. "He probably doesn't even remember me. Besides, he gave me to Bonnie. He didn't want some old cowboy doll hanging around. Especially not one that doesn't have its voice box anymore. I'm better off here, with you."

"He's got a little girl." Bo suggested hopefully. "Maybe I could go with you."

"We'd have to find your sheep, there's not enough time." Woody cast a forlorn look in Andy's direction.

"Bahhhh!" Out of seemingly nowhere, Bo's three sheep, Bill, Goat, and Gruff came clinking towards them. It seemed that they too recognized Andy.

"Do you all really want to go back to having to worry every year about getting put into the attic? Or storage? Or worse? What if we become lost toys again?" Woody asked.

"There will be other carnivals." Bo told him. "There's only one Andy. Besides, weren't you the one who said that being there for a child is the most noble thing a toy can do?"


End file.
